Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Facility Question and Answers

Moonridge Academy

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SUCK IT:
As you can see the extremists here will use any argument no matter how convoluted and diluted to persuade the gullible to not seek the help their children so desperately need. Not many people holding reasonable views on this industry will tolerate the bullying and threats that come there way from posting here, so that's why there is nothing left but a small gang of anti treatment extremists. Keep in mind you are taking advice from people who think legalizing all illegal drugs, while at the same time outlawing AA/NA will bring in a new era of utopian brotherhood in a world free from any form of treatment centers. The posters here don't care about you or your daughter, they just care about winning an argument and getting a free ego inflation from giving advice to parents, just like the professionals do, the very ones they harass online. Just another fornits irony.

Anne Bonney:

--- Quote from: "SUCK IT" ---As you can see the extremists here will use any argument no matter how convoluted and diluted to persuade the gullible to not seek the help their children so desperately need. Not many people holding reasonable views on this industry will tolerate the bullying and threats that come there way from posting here, so that's why there is nothing left but a small gang of anti treatment extremists. Keep in mind you are taking advice from people who think legalizing all illegal drugs, while at the same time outlawing AA/NA will bring in a new era of utopian brotherhood in a world free from any form of treatment centers. The posters here don't care about you or your daughter, they just care about winning an argument and getting a free ego inflation from giving advice to parents, just like the professionals do, the very ones they harass online. Just another fornits irony.
--- End quote ---

Ursus:

--- Quote from: "sad" ---Any abusive incidents at Moonridge Academy?
--- End quote ---
Moonridge Academy is one of the CERTS programs. In other words, it's a small program that is currently owned by a slightly larger company, most likely as an investment opportunity. From their About Us page on their website:

Certified Educational, Recreational, and Therapeutic Schools and Programs (CERTS) is a family of adolescent schools and programs recognized nationally and internationally for providing unique, specialized treatment programs for specific student profiles and also for providing the highest standards of care in the industry.[/list]

CERTS currently has the following programs under its umbrella (they've also had others in the past):


* Kolob Canyon Residential Treatment Center
Kolob Canyon is a 12-bed facility that works with girls ages 14-17 suffering from depression, eating disorders, self-mutilation, anger and defiance, a learning disability, adoption issues, or a history of substance abuse. This clinically intensive program is highly successful in treating core issues of self hatred and depression. The setting for Kolob Canyon is a beautiful, 23 acre horse ranch in Utah’s Canyon Country that provides more opportunities for the girls to work with horses than are available in other CERTS programs.
* Moonridge Academy
Moonridge Academy is a 16-bed facility that works with girls ages 12-15 who are exhibiting some of the challenging behaviors listed above including oppositional defiance, self-mutilation, and/or suicidal ideation. Moonridge Academy is clinically intensive, but uses experiential therapies to compliment traditional therapeutic approaches to provide "age-specific" therapy. Also, an average younger student age means that students are less exposed to the attitudes and issues of older girls.
* La Europa Academy
La Europa Academy is a unique 33-bed, fine arts-based facility that works with girls ages 13-17 that exhibit the behaviors and issues treated in the other CERTS programs. However, La Europa’s specialized programming blends the healing power of the fine arts (e.g. art and art therapy, drama, dance, and music) with all of the clinical intensity of the other CERTS treatment centers to create a unique and powerful approach to releasing self-destructive emotions. La Europa's superb setting is also highly conducive to inner growth and healing.
* Mountain Springs Preparatory Academy
Mountain Springs Preparatory Academy is a structured, co-educational boarding school specifically designed as a transitional program for graduates of treatment centers. While some students can go directly from the treatment setting back to home, other students do better when there is an in-between, transitional step that provides safety, structure, and 24/7 supervision. The Academy offers outstanding, fully accredited academics and is a natural "next step" for the CERTS treatment programs. Students participate in numerous self-esteem boosting activities that are not possible in the traditional treatment setting—cross country ski treks, white water rafting, ice climbing, horse packing, mountain climbing, etc. The "hands-on, go and do" educational philosophy of The Academy translates into international service projects in Mexico, educational field trips throughout the United States, and many other meaningful projects. All students are involved in a challenging Student Leadership program that assists them in taking charge of their own lives. This less restrictive, but still supportive environment can provide an important in-between step to the "structure" of the treatment centers and the comparative "freedom" of home.
In certain respects, Moonridge's situation reminds me of another of the programs you brought up, New Haven, which was originally started as a mom and pop operation, and which got subsequently bought up by Solacium Holdings (which was founded for the express purpose of creating a small stable of programs). Solacium overshot their investments, and subsequently had to unload a few programs. They currently go by the name of InnerChange.

There's a huge market out there in the buying and selling of small companies. The troubled teen industry is no different in that respect. Everybody hopes they can become part of the next Aspen Ed Group. Whether they actually manage to achieve such a feat or not, there are still fortunes to be made for the program owners who get bought out along the way.

Ursus:
Thanks, Moose, for that very detailed reply!


--- Quote from: "Moose." ---I was there. 14 months. I have the student manual. I however do not have working scanner.
Some points of interest from my time there:
The majority of the line staff themselves were wonderful people, and I think that most of them truly were there for the right reasons.
--- End quote ---
Imo, those are the ones who usually don't stay that long. Or they change...


--- Quote from: "Moose." ----One point while I was there, a girl was forced to dig up a tree because she was not 'working her program.'
-On my admission, I believe a rather expensive and very special ring of mine was stolen, but I have no proof, so I do not wish to get into that further.
-There were strip searches nightly if you were on safety.
--- End quote ---
Stealing from a "troubled teen," who can be quite easily also labeled as being a "liar," is, unfortunately, more common than one might think. What kinds of things could get you put on safety?


--- Quote from: "Moose." ----Strip searches after coming back from anywhere, even the horse stables at Kolob.
-At the library, you could only check out books staff thought were appropriate. For gods sake, they thought Twilight was inappropriate. Yes, Twilight sucks, but inappropriate? No.
-Mail was monitored, if you wrote something inappropriate, you had to rewrite it.
--- End quote ---
So, staff read all your outgoing mail? Were you restricted as to who you could write to?


--- Quote from: "Moose." ----To get off the initial safety, you had to sign a form that basically signed your rights away. I remember that so clearly, I didn't want to sign it, but to get off safety, I had to.
--- End quote ---
What are some of the rights you had to sign away?


--- Quote from: "Moose." ----Phone calls were 10 minutes once a week, staff member sitting next to you. If it got heated, your call was ended.
-Safety of course included bathroom watch, but you could be on bathroom watch without being on safety.
-If you failed to finish your consequences within a certain time, you were put on no-talk. That changed soon before I left, but the program director has changed now, so I'm not sure what the state of that is.
--- End quote ---
What entailed bathroom watch? What were typical consequences; how were they assigned? What could get you put on no-talk?


--- Quote from: "Moose." ---That's all I can really think of on this right now. Mind you it's 5 am so I may have more to add later.

By the way, the website is INCREDIBLY out of date. It has been as it is since 2007, possibly earlier.

ETA: I may have thrown out my manual, but I am not sure. It may just be in one of the many boxes that reside in my living room. Will look for it later.
--- End quote ---
That manual might be very helpful info to have on here, in case you are ever able to find it!  ;)

Ursus:

--- Quote from: "Moose." ---A very small update:
I have not found the student manual as of yet, but I have found my mother's parent manual.
--- End quote ---
:rasta:   GOLD!!!

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